GCSE Options

[GCSE2024]

My DD is Y8 at a selective school. She has to choose her options in next week or so which is quite difficult for her as her school experience has been quite disrupted!

He school insist the following as core:

English Language
English Lit
Maths
Biology
Physics
Chemistry
Religious Studies
1 MFL - she is choosing French
1 Humanity - she is choosing History

She then has two options but can't choose between Geography, Business Studies and Drama.

I'm worried that Geography and History will be too much and/or Business Studies isn't academic enough for her. I support the Drama choice as she enjoys it.

She has no idea what she wants to do at A Level/degree (she's 12!) so no clear path she needs to follow.

I'm just concerned she's going from homeschooling for most of her secondary schooling to KS4 very quickly; she's not really matured in lockdown so seems v.bizarre!

If she enjoys Drama, then absolutely she should do it.

In fact a rule of thumb would be that she should choose the subjects she enjoys. The main thing at GCSE is to keep options open - the only options she would be closing by not taking Geography/Business is probably that she won't be able to take these at A Level. But even that might not be the case everywhere.

You've listed 11 GCSEs (which is a huge number). Other than Drama (and even that has a lot of writing) they are all quite "heavy" subjects. Obviously it might not be her thing, but are there no less solidly academic subjects she could choose to make her workload a bit easier? I'd guess she would be looking at taking 25+ exams in the summer of 2024

Thanks @UserTwice - yes, 11 is correct. If they struggle they are allowed to change the three separate sciences for a combined Science GCSE.

I think her preferred combo would be Drama/Geography but she seems to be stuck on Business Studies- I think probably because my Masters is in Business and maybe she's thinking my job seems a good one but also because they do the best trips (New York and Barcelona pre- Covid but should be ok by time she's Y10/11!)

I'm rubbish counsel it would seem! Hopefully when they are back at school she might get some peer advice!

I did drama GCSE, it was fun. There was an essay element as well as the practical side.

I also did history and geography GCSE.

I learnt more in terms of information from the history and geography.

I learnt more in terms of confidence and how to get noticed from drama. One thing that has stayed with me is 'they can't give you points if you don't say it' that simple lesson has served me very well in interviews / group assessments over the years.

Why are you concerned that Bus St isn't academic enough for her? She's got plenty of academic subjects to do - an easy one might be a bit of light relief. I'm guessing she isn't bothered about Geo if she's picked History as her humanity. So I'd say Drama and Bus.

My DD is in year 10 and doing virtually those subjects - she’s doing Spanish rather than French but everything else is the same.

She seems to be fine with it all - about half of them at her school do 11 GCSEs as they do single sciences, whereas the rest do dual award science.

Personally I think Business at GCSE may be less interesting than she’d hoped, although the trips sound good!

I'd be worried about drama not running as normal due to covid. Maybe irrational, but a lot seems crazy still.

I don't think there is such as thing as an easy GCSE, but DS2 did say he reckoned he could have passed the GCSE in business as a lot of his pals did it and it looked "like common sense". I am pretty sure there is a lot more to it than that tho!

Can she talk to someone doing business (no studies any more btw) in year 9 or 10 and see what they say? She will know I would imagine if she likes geography or not. All of mine had strong feelings on that by the end of year 7 tbh (tho I do appreciate this has been an unusual 12 months - this must be a tough decision).

Whatever happens, she has a good range of subjects there.

Drama for sure and hopefully no further dusruptions! 11 is quite a load though! My daughter is os doing 9 plus an individual project and dropped D of E this year as it was too time consuming (plus hard to fulfil the obligations in lockdown).
Our school it's ususlly history or geography,.

She needs to be aware that quite a significant portion of the marks for the divisive piece which you work with others for and the log that goes with this. So that mark is quite heavily reliant on working with others.
There is also a scripted piece and the exam with a set script piece.
For AQA the devised piece is 40%, scripted piece 20% and exam 40%.

For the exam there are 44 marks for the set play and 32 marks for discussing a production you have seen within certain for example costumes. For this you need to know your set play inside out ( just like English lit) and the production really well.

I encouraged my DC to take one creative subject- my DSs chose product design and DD chose drama. DD has absolutely loved her drama GCSE course, which came as a total surprise to me.

The only trouble is clearly she doesn't fancy any of those subjects, or else the choice would be easy.
For a very bright child, they'll thrive and get high grades in everything.
Drama is fun and a good subject. Don't forget she'll need a lighter option. She's not doing any lighter subjects from her list.
Geography is the most academic presumably.
Business is a great subject. Many students link it to economics and maths at Alevel with a view to accountancy.

Drama relies on group work. If the others don't pull their weight it will affect your daughter's final grade. This happened with DD's Citizenship GCSE because the other girl she worked with did no work. DD failed her coursework, but aced her exam, so did manage to pull her marks up to pass, thank goodness.

11 GCSEs is a lot of work. I don't understand why schools do this.

Is the RS a short course or full GCSE? Not many schools (including selective) do 11 GCSEs now that they’re linear unless additional maths is the 11th. There’s a lot of content.
Mine did 10, including both Geog & history. Lots of kids take both as they’re very different and use differing skills. If she fancies both then that’ll be fine.
It’s a shame she has no preference whatsoever as that’s the obvious way to go. Whatever she prefers/fancies the most will be the ‘best’ choice. She needs to know a bit more about what the courses entail. As others have suggested ask if she can talk to a yr10/11 about them. Can she sit in a couple of the lessons even over zoom?

Group work not allowed to get together as groups, not able to easily forge social bonds to make group work happen well -- this is what would worry me.

DS wants to do catering & DT & we can't see how those will proceed well, either, if there is blended or distance learning. Catering we can probably accommodate (just about).

My DD, years ago, had exactly this choice! She did an extra MFL and Drama. Drama was exceptional at her school and no messing about was tolerated. Back then nearly everyone got A*. DD2 did too. It’s very good for confidence and speaking in public. DD1 is a barrister.

I wouldn’t worry about Business appearing non academic. Not all subject have to be a hard nosed grind. However who takes it? What results do they get? Are Geography results better? I would choose between Geography and Business based on school results.

Group work not allowed to get together as groups, not able to easily forge social bonds to make group work happen well -- this is what would worry me.

OP's DD is not taking GCSEs until 2024. If the Covid situation is still making group work impossible by then, it's highly likely that the Drama GCSE spec will be changed.

My DD is currently in Year 10 taking Drama. She's managed to devise, script and start practicing a 15 minute play script in combination with 2 other girls (one of whom seems to sleep most of the day and work in odd bursts at random times i.e. hardly a dream group) during lockdown. So, if we are still in on/off lockdown by 2024, I think the students will be pretty polished at working together virtually by then!

Also, at the risk of stereotyping, as OP's DD goes to a selective school, I suspect her group is more likely to be full of hardworking overachievers than those who thought Drama would be a doss.

Ah, didn't realise OP's child won't do any GCSE coursework until 2023-24. yr8 DS is choosing now for GCSE course he will start in 2021 and finish in 2022.

@NotDonna

Is the RS a short course or full GCSE? Not many schools (including selective) do 11 GCSEs now that they’re linear unless additional maths is the 11th. There’s a lot of content. Mine did 10, including both Geog & history. Lots of kids take both as they’re very different and use differing skills. If she fancies both then that’ll be fine. It’s a shame she has no preference whatsoever as that’s the obvious way to go. Whatever she prefers/fancies the most will be the ‘best’ choice. She needs to know a bit more about what the courses entail. As others have suggested ask if she can talk to a yr10/11 about them. Can she sit in a couple of the lessons even over zoom?

Full course RS- it's 11 full courses in total. They do PE/PSHEE too but no GCSE in that. AND DofE in Y9!

@UserTwice

Group work not allowed to get together as groups, not able to easily forge social bonds to make group work happen well -- this is what would worry me.

OP's DD is not taking GCSEs until 2024. If the Covid situation is still making group work impossible by then, it's highly likely that the Drama GCSE spec will be changed.

My DD is currently in Year 10 taking Drama. She's managed to devise, script and start practicing a 15 minute play script in combination with 2 other girls (one of whom seems to sleep most of the day and work in odd bursts at random times i.e. hardly a dream group) during lockdown. So, if we are still in on/off lockdown by 2024, I think the students will be pretty polished at working together virtually by then!

Also, at the risk of stereotyping, as OP's DD goes to a selective school, I suspect her group is more likely to be full of hardworking overachievers than those who thought Drama would be a doss.

Yes, a lot of the girls doing drama are interested in studying law.

@lljkk

Ah, didn't realise OP's child won't do any GCSE coursework until 2023-24. yr8 DS is choosing now for GCSE course he will start in 2021 and finish in 2022.

Errr if your ds is year 8 now he too will be sitting GCSEs in 2023/24...

Both mine did DofE. Not sure it’s remotely worthwhile these days. Universities don’t care. Employers don’t care unless it’s work related. Neither of my DDs even put it on a cv. It paled into insignificance. Do it if DD enjoys the idea of it but there are plenty of other things she could do!

You can do Business for A level without havin a GCSE in Business. BUT unless she really likes Geography, I would go for Business. I actually think Geography is a good subject - gives kids a better understanding of the world and there is the overlap benefit with essay writing skills she will be learning in history. BUT Geography is going to take a lot more of her time than Business. And she seems to be leaning towards Business. So it makes more sense to choose an 'easier' subject and then she'll have more time to focus on the GCSE grades she wants in the other subjects to get her into the A level programme she wants to do.

@PresentingPercy

Both mine did DofE. Not sure it’s remotely worthwhile these days. Universities don’t care. Employers don’t care unless it’s work related. Neither of my DDs even put it on a cv. It paled into insignificance. Do it if DD enjoys the idea of it but there are plenty of other things she could do!

It's compulsory at DD's school!

That’s a shame. DDs did it because they wanted to but I think making it compulsory is not sensible. It’s time consuming if you are in sports teams, orchestra, school play etc. Some DC benefit from it but ones that haven’t done it - no disadvantage. There should be choice.

11 GCSEs and D of E (that universities couldn't care less about) sounds like a recipe for an incredibly stressful two years.

Schools might think universities are interested in D of E but they aren't - they really, really aren't. I can vouch that medical schools aren't the least bit interested.